


Babysitting, Babbling, and Potential Blank Slates

by deliriumbubbles



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 22:01:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7818886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliriumbubbles/pseuds/deliriumbubbles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Cain agrees to lead DG and Glitch past the fields of the Papay, they end up having to spend a night in the woods. Cain is beyond annoyed at having to usher these two lost lambs through the wilderness.</p>
<p>AN: Given how long Glitch has been on his own, he had to survive somehow, until the munchkins grabbed him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Babysitting, Babbling, and Potential Blank Slates

 

The first time they had to stop for the night, it was too dark to head through the fields of the Papay and his stragglers both looked exhausted (which they might as well if they had been walking in circles for a whole day, as the kid had said). So Cain found some cover in the woods and started to make camp.

 

“We’re gonna have to split the watch,” Cain instructed DG. “I’m not ending up in some munchkin cage.”

 

“Well,” Glitch said cheerfully. “Split three ways isn’t too bad. We should each be able to get a couple of hours.”

 

“Not _you_.” Cain shot him a look. Glitch pursed his lips as he glared back.

 

“Why not?” DG looked between the two of them. She didn’t seem to even believe Cain. How could she not notice the _blatant_ problem with trusting a headcase to watch your back?

 

“You feel safe sleeping while your watchman is likely to forget what he’s watching for?” Cain moved around the camp, laying down small, brittle sticks around the perimeter. “Not gonna happen.”

 

DG and Glitch looked at each other. Glitch made a small shrug and said in a low, quiet voice. “He’s actually right about that. I don’t _think_ I would, but… I might. It’s not safe.”

 

It was almost touching how DG put her hand on Glitch’s shoulder. Cain wasn’t sure how long these two had been traveling together, but Cain could see they were friends of a kind. They were almost like two little children, the way they traveled arm in arm. It had occurred to Cain that DG might be doing so to keep Glitch from wandering off or falling over his feet (and it did help in that function), until he’d witnessed Glitch holding his arm out for DG to take. It was like he was her escort to some fine, uppercrust party.

 

“I’ll just… get some firewood,” Glitch suggested.

 

“He’s gonna disappear if you let him do that,” Cain told DG.

 

Glitch made a huffing noise. “I ain’t a child any more than I am a convict.”

 

“Yeah, you keep sayin’ that, but that zipper you got down your head tells a different story.” Cain shook his head and started to move stones into a circle.

 

“Why don’t we get some wood together?” DG gave Glitch a nod.  


“I’d sooner send two toddlers into the Sin District in Central City,” Cain drawled. He straightened up and brushed his hands off. “I’ll go get the wood. You two stay here and don’t get into any trouble.”

 

It was bad enough that Cain had to hear the headcase chattering incessantly along the way. Now he had to babysit him and this kid overnight. Tuning the headcase out had been easier during the light of day, when Cain had been focused on finding the road and keeping an eye out for longcoats. Now, around the camp, he would have to both listen to the babbling and make sure Glitch didn’t stick his fingers in the fire or something else astoundingly half-witted.

 

It was typical of headcases. With no brain to help them process their thoughts, every thought spilled straight out of their mouths. With severe impairment to short term memory, they constantly forgot that they were putting themselves in danger and couldn’t learn to avoid things that hurt them. In this time, Cain had seen some of a headcase or two hobbling along, having lost a foot or even a leg. When they hurt themselves, they forgot the injury. They hardly mentioned pain directly, even if you could get one near a doctor. Fear of medicos, _that_ they remembered. Seeing as how DG seemed to have a decent amount of sense in her, Cain had no idea how she could listen to all the headcase babbling, or put up with watching her friend every second.

 

Cain returned with a handful of branches to hear DG and Glitch in conversation.

 

“-he’s all we’ve got, though.” DG fussed with a leaf that had gotten stuck in her hair.

 

“Can’t dispute that. He’s definitely a better guide than the first one you found.” Glitch’s voice had a tinge of worry along with his false cheer. “Here, let me…”

 

Glitch worked his fingers through DG’s hair as gently as if he’d been tending fine silk. After a moment, he said, “Mornings are difficult. Whenever I wake up, really. It takes me some time to get my marbles in order.”

 

“Oh. Well, I’m sure we’ll have the time to-“

 

“That, uhhh, that’s not what I mean. I’m just…” Glitch sighed as he freed the leaf. Then he stared at it. “We don’t dream, usually. Not like this.” He gestured to the top of his head. “So, I’m awake, then nothing, and then awake again. It’s disorienting. I don’t know where I am, or who I am. I probably won’t remember _you_ at first.” He held a hand up and shrugged. “Sorry.”

 

DG frowned in sympathy. “That’s awful.”

 

Had they really been together for such a short time that she’d not seeing Glitch sleep? Cain wondered.

 

Glitch held up the leaf and let it go. “My point is this: If you and Cain left before I woke up, I would never know.”

 

Cain raised his brows.

 

DG stood up so abruptly that Glitch jumped a little. “We’re not going to _leave_ you!”

 

“I don’t believe you’d want to. You’re a real nice girl!” Glitch said through the side of his mouth. “But time is an issue with your folks, and I’m not proving as useful as I promised up in that cage. So, say you had to, or Cain decided he’s not interested in travelling with a zipperhead… I wouldn’t be hurt. I won’t remember you, if you’re not there when I wake up. I might feel like I _lost_ something, but…”

 

“No way! Just _stop it_.” DG sat down next to him and took Glitch’s arm. “We’re not leaving you. And if Cain wants to leave you, then we’ll just… I don’t know. We’ll figure something out.”

 

DG made a noise. “I would’ve helped you out of that cage whether you could give me something or not. No one should have to suffer at the hands of those pipsqueaks.”

 

“Agreed on that one,” Glitch muttered.

 

That girl was sure something else. Rescuing strange men from iron stasis suits. Dragging a headcase along with her as she searched for her parents. She leaned against Glitch as though she’d known him all her life and rested her head on his shoulder. He petted her hair.

 

Cain stepped over the twigs he’d laid out and knelt by the rocks. “I’ll take the first watch, kiddo. You try to get some rest.”

 

***

 

Cain woke to the scent of something roasting on the fire. His first day out of the suit, he hadn’t been hungry at all. A side effect of the stasis. It was the craziest invention, filtering blood and air and nutrients through the body. The suit kept you alive, whether you wanted it to or not.

 

Now, though, his stomach was gnawing at him, demanding to be fed real food at long last. Cain sat up, scowling around the camp. Where had the fire come from? He’d kept the flames low that night, and DG should’ve put it out once it got light.

 

DG was sitting near the fire, turning a stick with several fish speared on it. She gave him a little wave. “Morning.”

 

Cain blinked at her irritably. He looked around the camp. “Where the hell’s the headcase?”

 

He stood and scanned the ground for bootprints.

 

“He’s fine. I can see him over there.” DG pointed.

 

Cain turned to see Glitch jumping into the air and grabbing at the leaves of a tree. Cain rolled his eyes.

 

“We can’t spend all day chasing butterflies,” Cain told DG.

 

“I didn’t plan to. But we gotta eat, and you weren’t even up yet.” DG looked at him hard and gave the fish another turn.

 

Cain put his hands on his hips and looked at the fish. “Is there a stream around here?”

 

“Yep. We thought about sterilizing some water to bring with us, but we couldn’t figure out where to boil it.” DG shrugged. “Glitch suggested your hat, but I told him no.”

 

Cain shook his head and fetched his hat protectively. “Appreciate that. Well, I’ll give you credit for putting food on our proverbial table, but you shouldn’t leave your friend by himself. I know you care about the headcase, but they’re all the same. They don’t got the damn sense to take care of themselves.”

 

“If you say so. But Glitch rekindled the fire and caught the fish.”

 

Cain stared at her. Then he frowned. “He didn’t.”

 

“He did. Rolled up his sleeves and caught them with his bare hands.” DG bobbed her head. “Very mountain man. Or plains. I’ve never been that great at geography.”

 

Cain looked back at Glitch, who had stopped jumping up and down and was now carrying something toward them in his coat.

 

“We’ll need to toast these. They’re pretty bitter, otherwise. But we can bring some with us in our coat pockets for later.” Glitch knelt by the fire.

 

“What’s the chance that those are poison?” Cain asked.

 

“If they are, I’m dead already. They grow wild through this whole area, and I’ve been wandering around here _forever_. Or seems like it.” Glitch stared at the fire. “I’m not sure how to do this without a pan… Normally I just toss ‘em in the fire until they start to pop, but uh, you might burn your fingers.”

 

“I’ll be careful,” Cain drawled. He looked at his two strays hard at work on their breakfast. The headcase could remember the plant life in the area. And he clearly had adjusted from waking up already. He was functioning _much_ better than Cain would have thought.

 

After they’d gotten the food out of the fire, DG and Glitch munched on the nuts and fish pleasantly. Cain was still a little hesitant, but it didn’t appear to be undercooked or poison. The kids had done good.

 

“So.” Glitch dabbed at his mouth, almost properly. “Are you a friend of DG’s?”

 

Cain paused. He looked up at the two of them, as DG’s eyes widened in realization and Glitch looked at him expectantly. He wiped his hand and held it out.

 

“People call me Glitch. On account of, sometimes my synapses don’t fire right.”

 

Cain sat back, putting one hand on his knee and opening his mouth. Though he didn’t quite know what to say. He’d expected lapses in memory. He’d expected cycling, much more than Glitch actually did. But being completely forgotten, when Glitch had no problem remembering DG, somehow bothered Cain.

 

“That’s Wyatt Cain,” DG supplied. “We met him back at the house a few miles ago, in the iron suit.”

 

Glitch nodded, but it was clear that he didn’t really remember Cain at all.

 

“Glad to know I made an impression,” Cain said.

 

“Oh.” Glitch chuckled. “Well, there I go. Glitching again. Sorry.”

 

“Not a problem.” Cain shook Glitch’s hand and was rewarded with a smile to light up the whole damn forest. “Thanks for breakfast.”

 

Cain hadn’t been prepared for this. And he wondered, for a moment, if it might not be so bad if Glitch never remembered their first day together. This right here, it might’ve been a fine way to meet a man.

 

Later that day, as they were approached the fields, Cain overheard Glitch talking to DG about how the stasis suits work, and it became clear that Glitch had finally sorted through his marbles enough to remember who Cain was.

 

Glitch stumbled, and Cain instinctively caught his arm. For once, his strays hadn’t been holding hands. Cain wondered if Glitch had trouble with his feet, or if he needed to be checked for injuries.

 

Instead, Cain barked, “Careful, zipperhead.”

 

Glitch threw his hands in the air and regained his balance as he walked closer to DG.

 

It didn’t really matter how Glitch thought of him. Cain didn’t know why he cared what the headcase or the girl thought, or if it made any difference that those impressions obviously stayed with Glitch in some way, even if he couldn’t remember them all the time. Cain was hardly in a place to win over these two. He’d get the kids past the danger waiting for them in the Papay fields and be on his miserable way.


End file.
